To further support small businesses, the Government of Canada today announced the following additional measures:
- A 75% wage subsidy for qualifying businesses, for up to 3 months, retroactive to March 15, 2020. This will help businesses to keep and return workers to the payroll. More details on eligibility criteria will be shared before the end of the month.
- Allow businesses, including self-employed individuals, to defer all HST/GST payments until June, as well as customs duties owed for imports. The deferral HST/GST payments, as well as customs duties owing on imports, will generally apply to remittances that become due in March, April, and May. This measure will take effect immediately, through existing authorities.
- The new Canada Emergency Business Account will provide funding to eligible financial institutions so that they can provide interest-free loans in the form of lines of credit of up to $40,000 to businesses with payrolls of less than $1 million. A quarter of this loan (up to $10,000) is eligible for complete forgiveness.
- Launch the new Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Loan and Guarantee program that will enable up to $40 billion in lending, supported through Export Development Canada and Business Development Bank, for guaranteed loans when small businesses go to their financial institutions to help weather the impacts of COVID-19. This is intended for small and medium-sized companies that require greater help to meet their operational cash flow requirements. Details have yet to be released.
- Previously announced: a temporary wage subsidy for a period of three months. The subsidy will be equal to 10 per cent of remuneration paid during that period, up to a maximum subsidy of $1,375 per employee and $25,000 per employer. Businesses will be able to benefit immediately from this support by reducing their remittances of income tax withheld on their employees’ remuneration. This will now increase to 75% but details and eligibility criteria will be released next week.
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